Editorial: Lawmakers exhibit ethical shortcomings, too

Posted: Thursday, July 21, 2011

By

It's hard to imagine how fast Georgia lawmakers might jump on a legislative proposal from state Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain, that would require public-school employees caught cheating with standardized tests to repay any bonuses won as a result of students posting high test scores.

Mitchell's proposal follows a state investigation that uncovered massive cheating on the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests in Atlanta's public schools, including the changing of answer sheets by teachers and administrators. Of course, voting for Mitchell's bill would require most members of the Republican-dominated Georgia General Assembly to support a Democratic bill, but the urge to pile on Atlanta's schools likely would trump partisan considerations.

The real downside here is that voting on Mitchell's bill before they put their own house in order will mark state lawmakers as hypocrites. It would place them in the position of enforcing ethical behavior on some government employees even as their commitment to ethical behavior among themselves -- and they, too, receive government paychecks -- has waned.

Consider, as just one example, Gov. Nathan Deal's harrumphing, as recorded in media reports, "When educators have failed to uphold their trust and students are harmed in the process, there will be consequences," juxtaposed against his insistence, as reported by the Savannah Morning News, that the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission "declare several complaints against him 'frivolous.'"

Such a finding would make the complaining party liable for Deal's legal fees and would, of course, have a chilling effect on further complaints - which might be acceptable, were Deal not currently under investigation for a number of alleged irregularities in his campaign financing.

More broadly, there's the issue of state budget cutbacks that have decimated the GTCFC to the point its office now has just one employee.

And then, there are the revelations in an Associated Press report that some commissioners have made political contributions during their service on the panel. Additionally, according to the AP, one commission member is a registered lobbyist. Neither of those things are illegal, but it's apparent that both could create conflicts of interest.

What's abundantly clear here is that lawmakers don't want to have any real checks on even potentially unethical behavior among themselves. But until lawmakers are willing to subject themselves to rigorous ethical standards, they shouldn't presume to punish others for unethical conduct.